MOSCOW, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Thursday it had received a telegram from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in which he expressed his condolences over a Russian military plane being downed near Syria earlier this week, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russia's Defence Ministry said the Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft, with 15 Russians on board, had been downed by Syrian government anti-aircraft guns in a "friendly fire" incident on Monday, but blamed Israel for the incident.

Israel has blamed Syria for the shoot down.

Interfax cited President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Thursday that the Kremlin had received a telegram from Assad about the incident.

Syria's SANA news agency reported on Wednesday that Assad had sent a telegram to Moscow saying he was sorry about the death of Russian military service people, but blamed Israel for the downing. (Reporting by Andrey Kuzmin Editing by Andrew Osborn)